Standing beneath the steeple, playing in the cornfields, learning to be a pastor while trying to faithfully preach the Good News, and the church who loves me anyway.

“Get off your pity pot”?!?

In my sermon yesterday, I was talking about the Emmaus Road experience, and pondering aloud what it might mean to be so disappointed in something that you couldn’t dare see what was before your eyes. I shared the experience I shared in the last post about being told I shouldn’t write, simply intending it to be an example of having a dream crushed. At the end of the service, several folks came up to me and shared times when something had crushed a hope of theirs. That was nice– it was an interesting connection portal. But one gentleman (who has now visited with us three times) came up to me and said something that grabbed my attention. He said, “I need you to do something for me. I need you to go back and listen to your sermon, and then get off your pity pot.” I didn’t quite understand, and asked for a little clarification. He said, “You can write. Anybody that has heard you preach knows that you can write. Get off your pity pot, and do it.”

I didn’t know that my pity pot sitting was that obvious. But it is, and I got called out for it. I’m glad…I think. But now what?